19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

SHOE COUNT
Sir:
After reading Foot Soldiers of Fortune in your Jan. 23 issue, I decided to see who won the "sneaker war" in the rest of the issue. Here is my unofficial tally of individual sneakers pictured in your various photos and advertisements:

1. Adidas (20)
2. Nike (11)
3. Converse (10)
4. Puma (6)
5. Tie: New Balance, Spot-bilt (4)
6. Tie: Brooks, Tretorn, Tiger (2)
7. Tie: Pro- Keds, Pony, Blazer (1)

Boom Boom's shoes have me baffled.
CHUCK DAVIS
Annapolis, Md.

?Mancini's shoes are Vans (see above), made by the Van Doren Rubber Co. of Orange, Calif. Mancini has worn the shoes—made especially for him in Italy's red, white and green—for his last two fights. He wears them because he likes them, not because he's paid to.—ED.

FOOT SOLDIERS
Sir:
Thanks for the enlightening article on the sneaker war. While I was shocked to learn about the six-figure checks those shoe companies throw around, I was delighted with John Wooden's advice on the canvas Converse shoe. I have always had trouble with blisters on my little toe, but after I cut the seam over the toe, the problem was resolved.
GARY P. APPEL
Lexington, Va.

Sir:
The authors of your shoe story should have read Anthony Cotton's article in the same issue {Bigger but Not Necessarily Better). McCallum and Keteyian state that Lew Alcindor bested Artis Gilmore in the 1970 NCAA national championship basketball game. Cotton, however, correctly notes that Alcindor's rookie NBA season was 1969-70. UCLA's center in the '70 season was Steve Patterson, who, along with forwards Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe and guards Henry Bibby and John Vallely, did defeat Gilmore and his Jacksonville University teammates in the championship game.
JAMES L. FARR
Boalsburg, Pa.

Sir:
I take exception to the statement in the sneakers article about "pickup games involving the school band in which everyone plays in wing tips and black socks." As a high school band director, I constantly see the boys in my organization, many of whom are athletes, fight the opinions of peers who think that playing in the band makes them appear to be sissies or weirdos. I've seen football players drop out of my band program because they didn't have the physical coordination to march and play an instrument at the same time. And yet these same kids turn around and knock those kids who can do this and do it well. Incidentally, our football team has had only one successful season in the last five years, while the basketball team, half of whose members are in the band, was in second place in the county as of Jan. 27.
DANIEL T. CROFT SR.
North Star High School
Boswell, Pa.

UNTWINING TWINS
Sir:
I congratulate you on giving the ski team the publicity it needs to get support from this country by publishing There's Gold in Them Thar Hills (Jan. 23). But I'm afraid you misidentified the person in the photo on page 24. That's Steve Mahre shown in the gate, not Phil. It's easy to tell them apart because the name Steve has five letters and he wears goggles rimmed in white (five letters). Phil (four letters) wears blue (four letters) goggles.
GREG BELONOGOFF
San Francisco

TERRIFIC TOSS
Sir:
This lifelong hurler thoroughly enjoyed Jonathan Walters' discussion of throwing (PERSPECTIVE, Jan. 16). I once witnessed a memorable Type III ("not a chance in hell of making it") instant replay of a Type II ("aimed at one thing and hit another") throw.

One evening during my junior year at the University of Michigan, my roommate, Bill, and I were studying in different rooms in our apartment. Suddenly he yelled, "Hey, Beck! You've got to see this!" I rushed in and found Bill sitting at the table, pointing incredulously at the wastepaper bag 12 feet away. There, on the outside of the bag, hanging vertically from the edge by its metal clip, was a disposable ball-point pen. Bill said, "It ran out of ink, and I just fired it at the bag."